Jamaica to Hand King Charles Petition Seeking Answers on Slavery Reparations
- Jamaica's culture minister Olivia Grange announced the petition would be handed to King Charles on Monday
- The petition asks the King to refer three legal questions about the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica to the Privy Council
- Grange will also meet British Museum officials over the return of colonial-era artefacts taken from Jamaica
PAY ATTENTION: Find it fast with our new search feature at Legit.ng!
Jamaica's government is set to hand a formal petition to King Charles on Monday, asking him to refer key legal questions about the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the country's highest court.
Culture Minister Olivia Grange announced the move, saying it could open the door to a "long outstanding settlement for the hundreds of years of the most horrific abuse that our African ancestors endured."
Source: Getty Images
Three questions at the heart of the petition
According to BBC, the Jamaican government wants the court to examine three specific issues: whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was legal under English law, whether it violated international law, and whether Britain carries a legal obligation to provide redress today.
Read also
Haitian TPS expiry leaves disabled Americans without caregivers as 350,000 lose work rights
Grange was careful to clarify that the petition is not a direct demand for payment. "Once we get the answers, or once we get a response to those questions, then the next steps will be determined," she said.
Buckingham Palace indicated it had been working with Jamaica's Governor General to ensure the petition was filed correctly. A Palace spokesperson said King Charles has "on many occasions expressed his personal and wholehearted commitment to promoting greater understanding around the issue of slavery and finding ways to address historic wrongs for the benefit of communities today."
Colonial-era debt and artefacts
Grange pointed to a striking historical detail to underscore the urgency of Jamaica's position. When Britain abolished slavery across most of its empire in 1833, the government paid £20 million in compensation to slave owners, not to those who had been enslaved. The loans taken out to fund that compensation were only fully repaid in 2015.
"Up to 2015, Britain was paying the slave masters, because we were being considered property," Grange said. "The question really should be: if in modern times we're still paying back the slave masters for the property that was our people, our ancestors, then why shouldn't we be pursuing some remedy at this time?"
Alongside the petition, Grange is scheduled to meet with officials from the British Museum to advance talks on the repatriation of artefacts removed from Jamaica during the colonial period. She described the items as "priceless" and "significant to the story of Jamaica," adding: "We are working to bring them home."
Cameron's 2015 rejection
The move revisits a debate that was publicly shut down a decade ago. During a 2015 visit to Jamaica, then British Prime Minister David Cameron ruled out reparations for Britain's role in the slave trade. Speaking before Jamaican parliamentarians, Cameron called slavery "abhorrent in all its forms" but urged both nations to "move on from this painful legacy and continue to build for the future."
Jamaica's latest petition signals that it has no intention of doing so without first seeking legal clarity.
US and Israel refuse to condemn slavery
Legit.ng earlier reported that the United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution denouncing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”. According to BBC, the resolution highlighted the scale, brutality, and enduring consequences of the mass enslavement and trading of Africans, stressing that its legacy continues to shape racialised systems of labour, property, and capital.
Source: Legit.ng
